Trouser hanger



Nov. 23, 1954 J. A. BAROSSO TROUSER HANGER Filed Feb. 16, 1951 United States Patent TROUSER HANGER Joseph A. Barosso, Chicago, Ill.

App-iication February 16, 1951, Serial No. 211,386

Claims. (Cl. 2231-88) Although there may have already been hundreds of devices for hanging trousers, an object of the present invention is to provide such a device of improved or simplified form, which may be used with the ordinary wire coat hanger, and which will hold the trousers in an entirely satisfactory condition.

Although trousers have often been hung on wire coat hangers by being passed through the coat hanger and resting on the horizontal bar thereof, this is not entirely satisfactory, especially for long-period storage. In spite of the utmost care, the fold line is very likely to be discernible when the trousers are worn. Even if a cardboard is Wrapped around the wire to reduce the sharpness of the curvature, the fold line is very likely to be made evident by dust which accumulated on the top of the fold. Furthermore, it is difiicult with that method of hanging trousers to arrange the trousers just right so that they will hang straight and be in good press when taken off the hanger. Even if initially arranged correctly, the trousers are likely to be disarranged in the course of hanging the coat hanger with the trousers thereon or when adjacent clothing is moved.

According to the present invention, the trousers are hung upside down by fingers extending up into the cuffs, with one finger at each end of each cuff. At each end of the cuffs, the two fingers are part of an independent auxiliary hanger carried by the sloping shoulder of the wire coat hanger so that the two auxiliary hangers tend to spread apart, thus drawing the cuff portions of the trousers reasonably taut or stretched out. When thus held, the rerlainder of the trousers will hang naturally in proper conition.

The auxiliary hangers or special attachments of this invention can be made very economically from wire, metal, paperboard or plastic. They are very compact and hence are handy to carry in travelling, the wire hangers with which they cooperate being almost always available so that they do not usually need to be carried along. As a matter of fact, the devices are compact not only while being carried but also as to the space they require in the closet. If a pair of trousers is draped around a cardboard-wrapped wire or a Wooden rod, they add their own thickness (doubled) to the bar around which they are wrapped. With the present invention, only the undoubled thickness of the trousers lies beside the wire of the hanger.

Additional objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description and from the drawings.

Designation of figures Figure 1 is a fragmentary view showing the method of using the auxiliary hanger of the present invention for hanging trousers from a wire hanger.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the form of auxiliary hanger illustrated in Fig. 1, this form being made of wire.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a modified form of auxiliary hanger, this form being made of paperboard.

Figure 4 is a perspective view of still another form of the invention, this form being made of sheet metal or plastic.

Although the law requires a full and exact description of at least one form of the invention, such as that which follows, it is, of course, the purpose of a patent to cover each new inventive concept therein no matter how it may later be disguised by variations in form or additions of further improvements; and the appended claims are intended to accomplish this purpose by particularly pointing 2,695,120 Patented Nov. 23, 1954 out the parts, improvements, or combinations in which the mventive concepts are found.

General description As is perhaps seen best in Fig. 3, each adapter or auxiliary hanger 11 is provided with a hook portion 12, a connecting portion 13, and separate elongated fingers or hook portions 14. The hook portions 14 may extend up into the upside down trouser cuff 16 as indicated in Fig. 1. The two fingers 14 of one hanger 11 extend into diiferent cuffs of the same pair of trousers. At the other ends of the same cuffs are inserted the two fingers of another auxiliary hanger 11. The two auxiliary hangers 11 are then hooked over the sloping shoulder portions 17 of an ordinary wire coat hanger.

It may be observed that since the two auxiliary hangers are preferably identical in the interests of economy, the hook 12 on one will face in one direction while hook 12 on the other will face in the opposite direction. Thus when the auxiliary hangers 11 have been attached to the trousers it will benecessary to insert one of them through the loop of the coat hanger to hook over the hanger from the far side.

The weight of the trousers tends to pull the auxiliary hangers 11 downwardly along the sloping shoulders 17. This exerts a spreading action on the auxiliary hangers, thus stretching the cuffs 16 reasonably taut. This spreading action is accompanied by a self-centering action which tends to keep the coat hanger in the proper vertical disposition and to keep the auxiliary hangers 11 symmetrically disposed on the coat hanger. The trousers will hang straight down and will be stretched by their own weight along both front and rear creases, thus pulling out any wrinkles.

Various modifications of the hanger are possible and two have been chosen for illustration. Thus in Fig. 3, the hanger is made mainly of heavy paperboard together with a small wire portion 21 which forms the hook 12. The ends of the wire are bent over to secure it to the paper stock. The two legs 14 of this form of the hanger may be formed from separate pieces of paperboard stock or they may be formed from one piece joined together by the fold 22. The told 22 may be on the side as shown or at the top. The parts or folds are held together by wire 21.

Figure 4 shows a form of the auxiliary hanger which may be stamped from a flat sheet of metal or plastic and then folded to the shape shown. Here the hook 12 is formed integrally with the remainder of the hanger. Again, two pieces could be used, if preferred.

In each instance, the length of fingers 14 should be approximately equal to the height of conventional culfs on the inside thereof so as to support the cuff in erect condition and stretched out along its top. Ideally, the cuif seats at the bottom of the finger just as the finger reaches the fold at the end of the cuff, thus giving support at both points. A finger length of approximately 1.75" has been found satisfactory. The hook 12 should be approximately even with the tips of fingers. More exactly, it is desirable that the seat of the hook 12 (which rests on the coat hanger shoulder) be about A above the tips of fingers 14-. This works out to have the best chance of positioning the cuffs between the shoulders and the cross-bar of the coat hanger so that neither will interfere with the cuff. A spacing of 4 between fingers 14 and connecting means or shank 13 and A between the two legs 14 has been found satisfactory. All dimensions are of course sub ject to variations, especially if styles should change significantly.

For clarity and ease of illustration, Fig. 1 departs considerably from the dimensions given. Fig. 2 is drawn more accurately from an auxiliary hanger found satisfactory, the form now preferred. In Figs. 3 and 4, the tips of the fingers 14 do not appear to be at the preferred relative height with relation to the seat of hook 12. It might also be mentioned that with the paperboard form of Fig. 3, the fingers 14- would tend to lie against one another, but are easily spaced apart. In fact, in all illustrated forms, the fingers 14 may be flexed apart relatively easily.

I claim:

1. A trousers hanger assembly including a coat hanger having sloping shoulder members, and a pair of auxiliary U-shaped hangers, each including as one of the legs thereof two upwardly projecting fingers generally parallel to each other, closely spaced and of a length approximately equal to the conventional height of trousers cuffs to fit into the culfs of a pair of trousers and a hook on the other leg for supporting the auxiliary hanger from a shoulder of the coat hanger, the fingers being disposed with respect to the hook and remainder of the auxiliary hanger structure to lie on one side of a vertical plane through the hook perpendicular to the member on which the hook rests, the slope of the shoulder members being sufiicient to cause the auxiliary hangers to slide away from one another thereon to apply tension along the cuffs between them.

2. A U-shaped hanger for cooperation with a similar hanger and a coat hanger to hang trousers by their cutfs, including as one of its legs a pair of upstanding generally parallel and closely spaced fingers of a length to engage trousers cuffs and supporting means for said fingers extending away from the bottoms of the fingers in a direction generally perpendicular to the common plane of the fingers and extending upwardly generally parallel to the fingers and at its upper end extending, in a plane parallel to said common plane, over and down to hang on a coat hanger.

3. A hanger as defined in claim 2, formed of a single length of wire bent double at its mid-length, bent near the doubled end to form the portion to hang on a coat hanger, and separating to form the upstanding fingers of its free ends.

4. A hanger in accordance with claim 2, in which each finger and the adjacent and upwardly extending supporting means are formed as a U-shaped piece of sheet material with the width of the parts measured in the plane of the sheet being greater than the sheet thickness.

5. The combination of a pair of U-shaped hangers in accordance with claim 2, and a coat hanger having shoulder members on which said U-shaped hangers are hung and which slope sufficiently to cause said U-shaped hangers to slide away from one another.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 925,997 Druttman June 22, 1909 2,451,788 Wahl Oct. 19, 1948 2,456,014 Neaves Dec. 14, 1948 

